During assembly of vehicles in an assembly plant individual components must be supported prior to installation in the vehicle. In the case of heavy or bulky components it may be necessary or desirable to support these components in a specific configuration which facilitates installation of the component into the vehicle. For example, it may be desirable to support the component in an orientation which corresponds to its in-vehicle orientation and in a manner which enables access to locations, such as boltholes, used to attach the component to the vehicle.
An example of this is a vehicle engine or powertrain (i.e. engine plus transmission), where engine and powertrain specific support structures are used for the purpose of presenting the engine or powertrain to the vehicle body in a manner which facilitates attachment of the engine or powertrain to the vehicle body.
Commonly, customers may be offered various hardware options, such as engines or powertrains, with a specific vehicle body. Hence, to meet the need described above, multiple support structures must be employed each of which will be specific to a single hardware option or component version and which will be incapable of being used for other options. Frequently, for convenience and to ensure their strength and rigidity, these support structures are mounted on a platform. Together the support structure and the platform to which is attached constitute a pallet. As a result, a unique pallet is required for each version of the component associated with the assembly line.